Super Bowl set for New Jersey in 2014

? Check the antifreeze, grab the mittens, make sure the airport’s not snowed in.

We’re going to the Super Bowl.

In New Jersey. In February!

NFL owners voted Tuesday to put the 2014 Super Bowl in the new $1.6 billion Meadowlands Stadium that this season will become home to the New York Jets and Giants. It’s the first time the league has gone to a cold-weather site that doesn’t have a dome and, until now, those places couldn’t even bid on the big game.

The league made an exception for the New York area, and New York only. But just a few years ago, the NHL experimented with an outdoor game on New Year’s Day, and it was such a success that teams now fight to host what’s become an annual event.

“We believe the owners have the faith in us that 31/2 years from now we’ll put on a remarkable event,” Giants co-owner Jonathan Tisch said on the NFL Network. “The greatest game in the world will be played on the greatest stage in the world.”

For all the hoopla on putting the Super Bowl in the Big Apple, it wasn’t a slam-dunk. It took four votes by NFL owners to pick New Jersey over two Florida cities, Miami and Tampa. Miami was eliminated after the second ballot.

If the NFL decides to wait and see how this foray into the great outdoors in winter goes, it could be until about 2019 or 2020 to try again because it takes a year or two to put together a bid for a game that’s another four years away.